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Sunday, January 13, 2013

Sunny 16 Rule for Film Photography Without a Light Meter

Sometimes when you don’t have a lightmeter at the hand ( handheld
lightmeter or a old film camera without through-the-lens light meter),
then you may wonder how to set manually aperture and shutter speed of
your film camera for correct exposure. Luckily, there is a very usefull
rule called “Sunny 16” to help you with a exposure on a sunny day.The Sunny 16 Rule The
basic guide to photography exposure is very simple. If you have a
bright, sunny day, then use f-stop 16 for your camera lens aperture. The
shutter speed should then be set to the equivalent of your ISO film
speed – or the next number over. For example, if you are using an ISO
film speed of 100, your shutter speed should be set to 1/125. More than
often, your shutter speed number will be higher than the ISO film speed,
but it is much easier to remember that film speed equals shutter speed.The
Sunny 16 rule can also help to determine aperture and shutter speed
settings when conditions are not typical sunny days. For example, super
bright areas like snow or sand will require you to open one f-stop to
f/22 and a hazy sun will require you to close one stop to f/11. This
will, of course, require you to change the shutter speed settings.
Remember, when opening your aperture you are doubling the amount of
light and halving the shutter speed and when closing the aperture you
are halving the amount of light and doubling your shutter speed.Here
is a quick table to help you understand the Sunny 16 rule, how it
applies to different film speeds, and how different amounts of sun will
affect the f-stop and shutter speed.